Category: education

• July 20, 2011

  Allison Arieff on design ‘beyond the cubicle’

  Over cocktails, an old-school literary agent told me that either an editor “gets your work” or she doesn’t. It was the best description of intellectual sympathy, of shared understanding, of common purpose that I’d heard since moving to New York 2 years ago. So when I read Allison Arieff”s “Beyond the Cubicle” yesterday, I saw…
• July 19, 2011

  To become pessimistic or to let a hundred flowers bloom

  It’s one of those mornings when I read scores of sour stories about a world headed downhill. In an effort to make playgrounds safer, parents, legislators, and lawyers have made our children more risk-averse and less thick-skinned. Meanwhile, the debt crisis in Greece rages on in the eurozone: no quick fixes, no easy solutions. On…
• July 18, 2011

  ‘The choice is to join an institution or die on the vine’

  No, Jacoby, it isn’t. Five years ago I would have assumed that Jacoby was right. Three years ago I would have agreed with Jacoby. Two years ago I would have despaired with him. A year ago I floated the question: “Is it possible to live otherwise today?” That little question has made all the difference.…
• July 16, 2011

  On history and premodernity: A clue to the peasant’s life

  So certain stormy conquests looked at retrospectively, through the eyes of men today, seem like episodes, whatever their duration. They are achieved quickly or slowly. Then, one fine day, they collapse like stage sets. (102) Fernand Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization and Capitalism, 1500-1800. Volume 1. *   *   * If history is only…
• July 14, 2011

  The tale of the precocious boy

  There’s an old story about a young boy who grows up in a farming town. Year in year out, the parents barely hang on. It’s hard work this farming life, with each year farming folk being replaced by big business. Farmers grumble and say it is what it is and get back to work. The…